On the planet
Wilamean, the terrorist band known as the Succession Alliance has launched a nuclear
missile at the capital city Port Anteris. Hercules flies after it in his
chariot, accompanied by his friends Recorder 417 and Skyppi the Skrull. Herc
leaps upon the speeding missile and locates the warhead; Recorder begins
reciting the steps for disarming the bomb but he malfunctions and goes silent.
Herc rips the entire warhead out and hurls it into the sea—and then his tunic
is snagged and he rides the missile to a very nasty collision….
One year later, Hercules
is having trouble with dementia after the head injury and alcohol counteracts
his medications so his granddaughter Juno finds him woozily urinating on public
shrubbery and takes him home. There he is met by his grandsons, Ursus and
Antonitus; they give him an injected medication and put him to bed….
Emperor Arimathes, son
of Hercules, is on his throne listening to Prime Minister Spincor complain that
Hercules is an embarrassment to the galaxy, threatening the upcoming 75th
anniversary celebration of Wilamean democracy. Arimathes reminds him that
Hercules is the hero who made democracy a reality and tells him to hold the
alliance together while assuring him that Hercules will behave himself. But
Spincor is plotting to turn the public against the royal family….
At the rehearsals for
the Miss Andromeda beauty pageant, one of the lovely contestants suddenly has a
coughing fit and passes out, turning back to his real form as Skyppi the
Skrull, and he is rushed to the hospital. Hercules arrives to learn that his
old pal is dying of tuberculosis. In another part of the building, the King
meets with Dr. Quich who tells him Hercules has permanent brain damage and that
another blow to the head could kill him; Arimathes presents Herc with a special
helmet to protect his brain. Herc dislikes it but his son orders him to wear
it. His grandsons laugh at it, Herc falls asleep in a gynecologist’s table and
Spincor demands Arimathes rein in his circus family and punish Skyppi for
disrupting the pageant….
Galactus has discovered
a unique planetary system containing many unidentified elements. As the
World-Devourer devours the worlds, he is overcome by the absorption of the
alien materials and expands before collapsing in on himself, creating a black
hole….
Back at the hospital,
Spincor bribes Dr. Scruwell to tamper with Hercules’ medication so that he will
appear drunk at the big ceremony and humiliate himself and the royal family.
They are unaware that the gravely ill Skyppi overheard them….
At the celebration, the
ambassadors of Ciegrim-7 give Hercules a big introduction. Backstage, Dr.
Scruwell arrives to give Herc his injection. Herc steps up to the podium and
there is a worrisome pause…then Herc tears off the helmet and launches into his
expected speech, surprising Spincor….
Out in space, a band of
assassins prepared by the Succession Alliance are ready to deploy to Wilamean
when a small object, moving incredibly fast, smashes through their ship which
explodes, killing them all…. [It’s the new Silver Surfer.]
Spincor returns to the
hospital to confront Scruwell when he discovers the doctor locked in a closet.
Skyppi, wearing the doctor’s form, gave Hercules the correct medication and now
he delivers a grim warning that if anything happens to Herc, the Skrull’s last
act will be to kill Spincor….
After the big ceremony,
Herc is relaxing with the Ciegrim-7 Ambassador when Antonitus confiscates
Herc’s liquor. Then the planet comes under attack. Hercules jumps into action, rescuing
and protecting the populace and he takes his chariot out to identify the enemy
and comes face-to-face with the Silver Surfer, a fierce looking native of the
planet Kala, who bears a grudge against the demigod, vowing to kill him before
the entire galaxy is destroyed by Galactus….